As funding increases for global AIDS programs, the "monitoring and evaluation" ("m&e") activities associated with programs will quickly increase in importance for two reasons:

First, programs will need to demonstrate that funds are appropriately expended and that (at least initial) program results are positive in order for funding to continue.

Second, m&e programs themselves will be very large and complex. Most program managers expect 5-10% of project funds to be used for m&e, a level reaffirmed by Richard Feachem of the Global Fund in an interview last year. This suggests hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent per year on m&e.

The best (and essentially only) online resource devoted to global aids m&e with any rigor is the UNAIDS Monitoring and Evaluation subsite which provides program descriptions and various documents of merit. It addresses both the "information" issues of m&e (how to set up programs, appropriate metrics etc.) as well as some "coordination" issues -- which are critical. M&E efforts will fail unless the major donors have some consistency to their programs, lest country-level officers become swamped in having to establish different systems for different donors.

My sense is that m&e coordination hasn't gotten as far as it should, an impression in part due to my involvement with one of the resource groups listed by UNAIDS, but mostly because coordination requires a strong Web presence, and I'm still not able to find any new or in depth resources devoted to global AIDS m&e despite its importance. While I'm at the Bangkok conference, one of my projects will be to compile m&e resources from across the event and try to spin them into something coherent. I'll post a link when information is online.